Blockbuster sequels usually face a fair amount of pressure, but Pacific Rim 2 has just been put under a tidal wave of expectation after director Guillermo del Toro admitted it held the key to Hellboy 3.

The Oscar-nominated director estimated that he would need $120 million to make the hotly anticipated comic-book sequel, the final part of a planned trilogy. Unfortunately, that kind of money is difficult to find and, he joked, "a little beyond Kickstarter".

Promoting his gothic haunted house movie Crimson Peak, the director told The Daily Beast: "The hard fact is that the movie’s going to need about $120 million and there’s nobody knocking down our doors to give it to us."

But Legendary Pictures, the studios behind Pacific Rim, say they might be able to fund Hellboy 3 if Pacific Rim 2 is as similarly lucrative as its prequel, which made over $400,000 at the box office.

Hellboy 3 has always been a sought-after movie by fans, but it is star Ron Perlman who has been ramping up the campaign to make it happen on social media, to such an extent that the Hellboy actor had to apologise for getting everyone's hopes up.

However, Del Toro seems aware of the need to get the trilogy completed soon. "Ron is no spring chicken," he said. "So we’d better get to it before Hellboy has to do everything from a Barcalounger. I would watch that."